AA Platinum Challenge - Tips

[Kiwi Flyer]

No, you need AA miles or upgrade vouchers. QFF points will not upgrade on AA flights.

Hopefully OW will follow *A and allow alliance-wide upgrades (still in process of being rolled out on *A).

 

[simongr]

Thanks - based on this Upgrade awards table I reckon 25K miles - hmm - not sure if it will be worth that to me...

Thanks again

 

[NM]

Thanks - based on this Upgrade awards table I reckon 25K miles - hmm - not sure if it will be worth that to me...

Thanks again

Also note that the ticket has to be issued by AA (i.e. ticket number starts with 001) for AA to upgrade with miles since they actually change your booking class from D to A, effectively re-issuing your ticket. So if your ticket is originally issued by QF (i.e. ticket number starts with 081) you will need to allow for AA re-issuing your ticket with an AA ticket number, Depending on the fare type there may be a charge to have is re-issued by AA to their ticket number (US$125 for DONE4 type fare).

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

(US$125 for DONE4 type fare).

OR $0 depending on when and where your ticket was issued

 

[NM]

OR $0 depending on when and where your ticket was issued

only if you have not yet flown the first international sector. Once that has been flown, the re-issue fee is due.

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

only if you have not yet flown the first international sector. Once that has been flown, the re-issue fee is due.

Good point and something I should have been more aware of since I have been looking at plan B (& C) should the UK restrictions not be eased. Fortunately they have (from friday) allowed larger bags.

 

[tscharke]

WOO-HOO! thanks guys and especially simongr to alerting me to the platinum challenge!

My recent trip to Holland landed me platinum status, in fact I landed there the Sunday, checked aa.com on the Tuesday and WHAM! PLATINUM!!! Thank you very much just by flying one way!!!

Upon my return flight the following Saturday I had no problems entering the BA lounge at Schipol & Heathrow! I took the advice from this forum and requested a letter from AA detailing my status and the girls at the lounge desk had no problems with that!

Yup, a happy candy thief here

 

[isdoo]

Hi,

Many thanks for the info in this thread

I am due to do the following...
LONDON - Singapore (first)
Singapore - Perth (club)
Perth - Cains (club)
Cains -Brisbane (Econ)
Sydney - Hobart (Econ)
Hobart - Sydney (Econ)
Sydney - Hong Kong (first)
Hong Kong - London (First) - all on QANTAS

Needless to say I wish to get what I can. Is it just a case of phoning up a few days before I depart and register for the Platinum Challenge? I am not sure how many points the above will earn.

How about my partner? Does she have to call herself? Or can it be done online via their mail system?

Is it just a simple case of assigning our AA numbers to our tickets?

The tickets are booked, but no AA number is added yet. Do we have to apply for challenge before adding the numbers?

The first flight is in 2006 and the last will be in 2007. Does this affect anything?

Many thanks.

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Welcome to AFF isdoo

To take the AA Plat (or Gold) Challenge, you need to contact AA to register for it since it doesn't happen automatically. Experts here suggest you sign up with their US office.

The challenge is for a 90 day period only. If you complete the challenge before the end of 2006, then status is good for all of 2007 and early 2008. If you complete the challenge early 2007 then the same applies (it isnt until later in 2007 that successful completion would give status through 2008).

 

[simongr]

Based on my knowledge (and the fact that Dave Noble probably isnt up yet so cant answer for himself )

Challenges start on either the 1st of 16th of the month. You need to register before your first flight credits to AA. So if you trip is starting say on 5 December - I would call the US desk on about 25 November (just so you give yourself a margin to forget to do it on time )

You can register for both you and your partner at the same time.

Given that your first flight is LHR-SIN in first you will earn 1.5 qualifying points. LHR-SIN is 6769 miles (as per mileage monkey which is 10153 points so you should qualify for platinum on your first flight.

As KF pointed out you will be platinum until Feb 2008 then drop to gold (unless you requalify next year).

 

[isdoo]

Thanks.

Any tips on how I can the prove that I am a platinum holder whilst in Australia / Hong Kong etc.

It would be nice to be able to benefit from the lounges on our economy flights on Qantas. (I assume I will qualify for those then)

Thank you.

 

[Mal]

Thanks.

Any tips on how I can the prove that I am a platinum holder whilst in Australia / Hong Kong etc.

Card will eventually turn up so that will prove status after a certain point. While still travelling, it can be hard.

Three possible solutions -
1. Get AA to send you a letter/fax confirming your status.
2. If the AAdvantage page on the AA website shows your status (unsure if it does, but think it does change) then a printout of that may help.
3. The lounge agent should be able to call some kind of helpdesk/do some stuff on their computer and get your status level. Your boading pass may also be pre-printed with your status.

#1 is the one you should be aiming to use.

 

[Dave Noble]

Card will eventually turn up so that will prove status after a certain point. While still travelling, it can be hard.

Three possible solutions -
1. Get AA to send you a letter/fax confirming your status.
2. If the AAdvantage page on the AA website shows your status (unsure if it does, but think it does change) then a printout of that may help.
3. The lounge agent should be able to call some kind of helpdesk/do some stuff on their computer and get your status level. Your boading pass may also be pre-printed with your status.

#1 is the one you should be aiming to use.

Getting a letter is the best as you mention. The website does indicate status, so wait until it shows platinum and then contact AA to get a letter. It takes about a day from the qualifying flight crediting to the account for the status to change to Platinum

Dave

 

[simongr]

Wouldnt status appear on the boarding pass? All my BPs have something like "FF GOLD ONEWORLD SAPPHIRE" or "QCSL RUBY" on them.

 

[Mal]

Wouldnt status appear on the boarding pass? All my BPs have something like "FF GOLD ONEWORLD SAPPHIRE" or "QCSL RUBY" on them.

Two issues with this. The first is that often the printout on the boarding pass isn't updated when your status is updated so it may still say you're a NB in the AA FF scheme. Secondly, not all lounge agents believe what they read on the boarding passes due to certain possibilities of being able to fake status on them.

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

thirdly status doesn't always come through on BP (some of mine from RTW didn't for example so I had to whip out the card to get lounge access)

 

[simongr]

Just reviewing my travel profile for 2006-2007 and my commitment to AA is slightly wavering if only through the loss of some minor benefits - and now my mind is racing as to whether I will get the value out of the AA program to outweigh the "costs".

I am curently QF SG - with my qualifying period for QF being Oct-Sep - so bascially at the moment I 0 status credits for 2006-2007 and about 66K points. My travel profile for 2006-2007 is roughly:

2006
SYD-BKK-SYD - wt+
SYD-SIN-SYD - BUS
SYD-JFL-LHR-PFO-SYD - BUS (estimate 25k miles on DONE4)
SYD-NRT-SYD - BUS

2007
SYD-MIA-SYD - BUS
SYD-SHA-SYD - BUS
SYD-LHR-SYD - BUS (estimate 25k miles on DONE4)
SYD-SIN-SYD - BUS
SYD-HKG-SYD - BUS

All 2007 flying should be pre30 Sep 2007.

Based on my opening balance of 66K QFF points my estimates are that by 30 Sep 2007 I should have:

QFF points - 300,247
Status crredits - 3,040
Amex rewards points - 80K

I should hit QF WP in march 2007 - which means from then I get better seat allocation, better upgrade chances (but given that I dont plan any economy int'l flight next year - this is not a big deal), F check in (no real biggy for me) and F lounge (now this is a carrot I am going to miss).

So going with AA based on the same travel profile I am going to end up with:

QFF points - 66K (subject to no domestic upgrades being taken)
Amex Rewards points - 80K
AA points - 255K

I dont think I have a chance of hitting exec platinum as my miles flown are about 63,444 - 95,166 Qpoints (although I might be able to stretch that a little).

Comparing what I could do with those points (assuming that I move amex points to QF), _ I could get 3 return bus class flights to Singapore. With AAdv I could get 2 business class return flights to UK.

So do I value F lounge access and better seating more than 2 return flights to UK....

 

[Dave Noble]

Just reviewing my travel profile for 2006-2007 and my commitment to AA is slightly wavering if only through the loss of some minor benefits - and now my mind is racing as to whether I will get the value out of the AA program to outweigh the "costs".

I am curently QF SG - with my qualifying period for QF being Oct-Sep - so bascially at the moment I 0 status credits for 2006-2007 and about 66K points. My travel profile for 2006-2007 is roughly:

2006
SYD-BKK-SYD - wt+
SYD-SIN-SYD - BUS
SYD-JFL-LHR-PFO-SYD - BUS (estimate 25k miles on DONE4)
SYD-NRT-SYD - BUS

2007
SYD-MIA-SYD - BUS
SYD-SHA-SYD - BUS
SYD-LHR-SYD - BUS (estimate 25k miles on DONE4)
SYD-SIN-SYD - BUS
SYD-HKG-SYD - BUS

All 2007 flying should be pre30 Sep 2007.

Based on my opening balance of 66K QFF points my estimates are that by 30 Sep 2007 I should have:

QFF points - 300,247
Status crredits - 3,040
Amex rewards points - 80K

I should hit QF WP in march 2007 - which means from then I get better seat allocation, better upgrade chances (but given that I dont plan any economy int'l flight next year - this is not a big deal), F check in (no real biggy for me) and F lounge (now this is a carrot I am going to miss).

So going with AA based on the same travel profile I am going to end up with:

QFF points - 66K (subject to no domestic upgrades being taken)
Amex Rewards points - 80K
AA points - 255K

I dont think I have a chance of hitting exec platinum as my miles flown are about 63,444 - 95,166 Qpoints (although I might be able to stretch that a little).

Comparing what I could do with those points (assuming that I move amex points to QF), _ I could get 3 return bus class flights to Singapore. With AAdv I could get 2 business class return flights to UK.

So do I value F lounge access and better seating more than 2 return flights to UK....

I would have thought that getting 5,000 more qpoints to get the 100k qpoints would not be too difficult . Any domestic economy sector you fly would add a min of 500 and it wouldnt take much to get 3000 miles from the itineraries

If you can do that extra few miles, you will get 8 e-VIPs which do have a decent value in their own right and do trade on coupon connection for around 30,000 miles each so you could possibly get another couple of return flights to UK if you trade them giving 4 J r/ts to UK vs 3 J to SIN

It will delay you getting flounge rights for a few months till you do hit EXP ( which is easy to do if you want to ) e.g. when flying to MIA, rather than fly LAX-MIA non-stop , do one way via ORD and get 2941 extra miles (4412 qpoints ) for no extra cost

Your seating choices wont be much worse as an AA EXP over a QF WP for domestic flights and on international flights in business class, there is no difference to what is available other than being able to pre-select row 16.

I would suggest collecting flying miles to AA and the AMEX points can be migrated to AA / QF depending on what extra is needed.

Dave

 

[simongr]

Yeah I think I agree - I just wish I could get my budget/plan approved for 2007 so that I can look at this itinerary with confidence. If the two big RTW trips get approved I will be adding a couple SYD-BNE/MEL rtns to the end of the DONE4 and if the trips go ahead as planned - before ticketing I will definitely be trying to get the best value (with the constraint of minimising travel time) out of the DONE4. Mind you knowing my business - I can see me eeking out a few extra miles to hit EXP - only to be asked to do a couple of SYD-LHR trips to help out there.

I hadnt thought about the value in miles of the SWUs (guessing 8 of them would be 240K points). One thing I had seen on a FT thread was that the SWU was only able to be used on particluar flights (AA metal) and on the list I saw there were no flights originating from/to SYD. I cant find the thread at the moment.

 

[Dave Noble]

I hadnt thought about the value in miles of the SWUs (guessing 8 of them would be 240K points). One thing I had seen on a FT thread was that the SWU was only able to be used on particluar flights (AA metal) and on the list I saw there were no flights originating from/to SYD. I cant find the thread at the moment.

SWUs can only upgrade AA operated flights, but they do trade quite well on FT coupon connection, so you can use one to upgrade a DONE4 transatlantic. Work out how many you want to use yourself and then use the rest on CC to get some award flights

Dave